You Can Bring Back the 80s: Okkervil River’s Silver Gymnasium

The Silver Gymnasium

Will Sheff recently said that he “can’t make 1987 come back…this is the closest thing I can get to that,” while talking about Okkervil River’s expansive ode to his childhood, The Silver Gymnasium. Variously described as an aural bildungsroman and a return to his hometown in song, Okkervil River’s newest LP builds on Sheff’s ability to capture musical styles without sacrificing his artistic integrity….[Read More]

David Estes: “The Earth Dwellers” Book Blast and Giveaway

 

Your favorite Dwellers and Country Saga characters come together in this epic seventh book!

As President Borg Lecter threatens to annihilate the Country tribes in order to expand his glass-domed empire, Adele ventures into the belly of the beast. Her only hope of survival is the consolidation of Dwellers and Country power before it’s too late.

Former demagogue President Nailin is eliminated, yet civil unrest infects every alliance. To save Adele, President Tristan faces his greatest challenge yet: unifying unfriendly Dwellers in the Tri-Realms to raise an army against Lecter. Meanwhile, Dazz must convince the Ice Country leaders to march with Siena and the Tri-Tribes on the gates of the Glass City.

The world sits on the edge of a knife. Will Adele, Tristan, Dazz, and Siena defeat Lecter and his army of killers before the Glassies wipe them off the face of the Earth?


See where it all begun with The Moon Dwellers and Fire Country


To celebrate the release of The Earth Dwellers by David Estes, the fourth book in both The Dwellers series and Country Saga, David is giving away UNLIMITED free eCopies of Fire Country, book one in the post apocalyptic, dystopian, Country Saga. A little over a year ago, David published his first young adult dystopian series, The Dwellers, and it has changed his life forever. Since then, he’s gone from struggling Indie author to fulltime writer, he’s watched in amazement as his Goodreads fan group has swelled from 300 members to over 1,600, and growing. He’s been featured on Buzzfeed, as one of the ‘15 Book Series To Read If You Enjoyed The Hunger Games‘, and has just signed on to Andrea Hurst and Associates literary agency. Andrea will be working with David to expand both the Dwellers and Country Saga, taking David’s career to a whole new level.


So before the two series collide in The Earth Dwellers, grab the coupon code below and download your eCopy of Fire Country from Smashwords. Share the code with your family, friends and literary inclined pets. The only thing David asks for in return is that if you enjoy the read and continue on with the series, to please leave a positive review on Amazon.com, Goodreads and blogs for each of his books that you read.

 

Visit: Smashwords
Simply use the coupon code: WM49N and download your FREE eCopy.
Expiration Date: September 15, 2013

 


The Earth Dwellers will cap off an eighteen month journey that has taken me from unknown Indie author to still-mostly-unknown fulltime Indie author. The change is a subtle one for most people, but for me it’s a dream come true. To the hundreds (and now maybe even thousands!) of readers who have come along for the ride with me, either by reading the Dwellers Saga, the Country Saga, or both, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.



Now down to business. There may be some of you who have only read the three books in the Country Saga or only the three books in the Dwellers Saga, and are now thinking you’ll read The Earth Dwellers, which is supposedly the 4th book in BOTH the Country Saga and the Dwellers Saga. Well, that’s awesome! However, I must highly recommend that before reading The Earth Dwellers that you read the three books in BOTH series. Trust me, doing so will greatly enhance your experience, as The Earth Dwellers will be taking significant characters from both series and crashing them together (yes, like a water country wave) into an action-packed tale of struggle and loss and hope and friendship… And maybe a little love, too.


The Country Saga
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife and soul mate, Adele, who he’s now been happily married to for more than two years.

A reader all his life, David began writing novels for the children’s and YA markets in 2010, and has completed 13 novels, 11 of which have been published.  In June of 2012, David became a fulltime writer and is now travelling the world with his wife while he writes books, and she writes and takes photographs.

David gleans inspiration from all sorts of crazy places, like watching random people do entertaining things, dreams (which he jots copious notes about immediately after waking up), and even from thin air sometimes! Recently he’s been inspired by some of his favorite authors, like Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and Maggie Stiefvater.

David’s a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, an obsessive Goodreads group member, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table.  He loves responding to e-mails, Facebook messages, Tweets, blog comments, and Goodreads comments from his readers, all of whom he considers to be his friends.


Where you can find David Estes hanging out:

Blog/website
Facebook page
Goodreads author page
Twitter


Other Young Adult Books by David Estes:

Children’s Books by David Estes:
The Nikki Powergloves Adventures: Nikki Powergloves- A Hero is Born    Nikki Powergloves and the Power Council    Nikki Powergloves and the Power Trappers    Nikki Powergloves and the Great Adventure   Nikki Powergloves vs. the Power Outlaws (Coming soon!)

Megan Thomason: arbitrate Cover Reveal

So if you didn’t read daynight yet, you must. And if you did and you’re excited for the sequel, like I am, you’ll be happy to know that Megan has a release date scheduled for arbitrate for October 29th!

And guess what? I had an exclusive peek at the cover a few days ago, and now I get to share it with you!

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arbitrate-Full-Cover-2000

Remember The Second Chance Institute (SCI). Earth’s benevolent non-profit by day, Thera’s totalitarian regime by night. They’ve stepped up their game on Earth and on Thera—infiltrating political parties, preying on the downtrodden, and planning offensive maneuvers. And they’re handing out more “second chances” than ever before. The SCI’s abuse of their charter leads to Arbiter oversight and bitter consequences.

 

Remember Kira Donovan. Broken, burdened, and evading those who wish her harm, Kira enlists the Arbiters’ help when forced to return to the clutches of the SCI and her angry, estranged love.

 

Remember Blake Sundry. Exiled, determined, and packing an agenda, Blake seeks assistance on Earth and Thera to use his newfound knowledge to bring down the SCI.

 

Remember Ethan Darcton. Overworked, emotional, and holding a grudge, Ethan hunts down his stolen property, but finds himself in awkward territory, stuck between the Arbiters and the SCI.

 

Full of action, competing agendas, romantic entanglements, humor, twists and turns, arbitrate is Megan Thomason’s third installment in the award-winning daynight series after daynight and clean slate complex (a daynight story).

 

Add arbitrate to your Goodreads shelf today! 

 

As part of the new book release, Megan has also upgraded the cover of daynight! Um, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the new cover is gorgeous! What do you think?

 

New-daynight-Cover-800

 

Praise for daynight:

 

2012 Book of the Year Award Finalist-Young Adult Fiction, ForeWord Reviews

 

“Sure to win over YA readers looking for a dangerous, dystopian adventure story” —Kirkus Reviews

 

“Gripping young adult dystopian novel; compelling conflicts; high stakes; powerful narrative; surprises keep coming; strong writing; page-turner; engaging characters; Readers will be hungry for the sequels.”—BlueInk Review (starred review)

 

“Thomason’s description of Thera’s totalitarianism will make fans of Brave New World shiver… SCI, her fantasy corporation, has disturbing parallels to actual companies and regimes that claim to do good while harming people… The author deftly appeals to both romance-loving teens as well as those intrigued by young adults fighting the establishment.”—ForeWord Clarion Review, 4 stars

 

Megan Thomason
About Megan Thomason 
Bestselling, award-winning author Megan Thomason lives in paradise aka San Diego, CA with her husband and five children. A former software manager, Megan vastly prefers writing twisted tales to business, product, and marketing plans. When she isn’t typing away on her laptop, she’s reading books on her phone–over 600 in the last year–or attending to the needs of her family. Megan’s fluent in sarcasm, could potentially benefit from a 12-step program for road rage, struggles with a Hot Tamales addiction, loves world travel & fast cars and hates paperwork & being an insomniac.

Super important links: 

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Teaser #3: A Boat Made of Bone

I’m currently going through my second draft and changing all the sections that were originally in 1st person POV to limited 3rd. The process of changing a story from 1st to 3rd is a lot of work! And I’m betting it’s a lot harder than it sounds. I still have 19 more chapters to change. But it gives me a good chance to see how things feel. Anyway, I’ll probably still be altering sections on later drafts that I only gleaned for verbs and pronouns on this round of revisions. So fun!

But I’m revising this section right now, and so I’m offering it as a teaser. It’s one of my favorite parts of the book. I hope you enjoy it! Kissing

 

She opened her eyes and was in darkness. A fire whipped and crackled a few feet in front of her. The smell of burning pine bit at her nose and a light breeze brought the odor of disturbed sand and incense rippling by. She sat on a large cold rock, watching the fire. Through the flames, on the other side of the fire, the bluest eyes she’d ever seen caught her gaze, staring at her. A slight smile tugged at the corners of their owner’s mouth. A dimple formed in his right cheek.

There were others around. Kate glanced at them. Their olive-complected faces were illuminated by the firelight. The flames flickered in the prisms of their eyes and cast shadows in the folds of their brightly colored robes. Strangers. Maybe Bedouins or some sort of desert dwellers. There were large tents surrounding the fire, but her eyes kept coming back to the set of sapphire eyes straight across from her. Who was he?

His gaze warmed her. He wore no headdress or flourish, just his dark cap of short hair and clean, shaven face. A tingle danced up her spine, hot like the touch of a summer breeze, though her back was cold. Overhead, the Milky Way was a white gash across the night sky—a sky so dusted with stars she felt like she may be one of them, fallen into darkness and lost in a desert.

She lowered her eyes and he was still staring at her. He winked. She glanced around to see if she was confused about who he was looking at. When their eyes met again, he tilted his head at her and grinned. Her hearts thudded at the sight of that smile. There was something familiar about it.

He stood and moved around the fire. He was wearing a white linen shirt and black linen pants. His bare feet brushed against the edge of the soft red coals of the fire, but he paid them no attention. Cinders shot up around him at being disturbed, dancing around him in the jetties of air his passing created. He seemed to glow in the firelight as though he too were made of stardust. He was in front of her, taking her hand and lifting her to stand beside him.

He pulled her past the fire, through the ring of people around it, and to the opening of one of the tents. He pulled the flap back and guided her inside. A lantern glowed in one corner, shedding muted light on a lush, Persian rug and piles of red and golden pillows. He moved close to her and kissed her. Kate’s heart drummed a thunderous, galloping beat which echoed across the desert plain outside their tent.

He paused long enough to whisper, “I’ve been waiting for you.”

 

Add A Boat Made of Bone to your Goodreads shelf today! 

Add to your Goodreads Shelf!

Cover Reveal: Fisher Amelie’s “GREED”

I’m really excited to participate in the cover reveal for Fisher’s next book, slated to released in the fall. Which, you know is just around the corner, so get pumped, fans!

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Gather ‘round, love, because I want you. I want what you have, I want what you don’t have, I want more of what I already have. I want. But if you so much as ask for something in return, go ahead and walk away. Know if you want to play in my world, it’s every man for themselves and the weak become mine. Leeches will be obliterated because I make it my job to destroy them. I protect what’s mine and I take what’s yours…because that’s what I do. I want.

My story will not endear me to you and, frankly, I could care less if it does because I’m in this for the money and nothing else. There’s nothing redeeming about me. I’m a corrupt, money hungry, immoral asshole from Los Angeles. I’m every man’s worst nightmare and every girl’s fantasy.

I’m Spencer Blackwell…And this is the story about how I went from the world’s most coveted guy to the guy no one wanted around and why I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Find GREED on Goodreads:

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Great news! VAIN, the first in the Seven Deadly Series got a cover update! Here it is!

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If you’re looking for a story about a good, humble girl, who’s been hurt by someone she thought she could trust, only to find out she’s not as vulnerable as she thought she was and discovers an empowering side of herself that falls in love with the guy who helps her find that self, blah, blah, blah…then you’re gonna’ hate my story.

Because mine is not the story you read every time you bend back the cover of the latest trend novel. It’s not the “I can do anything, now that I’ve found you/I’m misunderstood but one day you’ll find me irresistible because of it” tale. Why? Because, if I was being honest with you, I’m a complete witch. There’s nothing redeeming about me. I’m a friend using, drug abusing, sex addict from Los Angeles. I’m every girlfriend’s worst nightmare and every boy’s fantasy.

I’m Sophie Price…And this is the story about how I went from the world’s most envied girl to the girl no one wanted around and why I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.

Find VAIN:

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About Fisher Amelie: FisherAmelie

Fisher Amelie is the author of The Leaving Series, Callum & Harper and Thomas & January. She began her writing career as a copywriter for an internet marketing company wherein one of their client’s said, ‘Hey! You’re funny. You should write books’. Which in turn she said, ‘Hey, get out of here! This is the lady’s restroom.’ While washing her hands and the embarrassment from her face, she thought they may have had a valid point. So, she took the thousands of hours of writing stories growing up, tucked them into her pocket and began writing and writing and writing.

Find Fisher Amelie:

blog twitter you_tube facebook_1

And, just to whet your appetite, these titles are coming soon!

book_covers_round2

 

Alpha Readers Needed: A Boat Made of Bone

Screen Shot 2013-08-14 at 5.28.08 PMBorrowing from a page out of the Mary Robinette Kowal play book, I’ve decided to experiment with running an alpha read program on my website using a password protected page. Anyone who is interested, fill out the form below and I’ll send you the password to access the page.

This is the second draft of the novel, so there will be mistakes and problems. I’ll mainly be asking for feedback on large issues that I can still change. There are the questions I’ll ask you to bear in mind as you read.

I will want you to look for things that:

  1. Confuse you
  2. You don’t believe
  3. You are bored by
  4. You think are cool

What I want are your reader reactions, not grammar problems or other things related to punctuation and whatnot.

And yes, if you follow the link to Mary’s page, you’ll see that I COMPLETELY ripped her off. She’s great and smart and beautiful, why wouldn’t I? If you haven’t read her books, try them out. I’m about to start Without a Summer (I have to clear a couple other books off my plate first, but then . . .).

Also, if you can’t get enough of me (and I so would not blame you if you couldn’t, I mean, I’m utterly charming, right?), check out my recently added Free Fiction page for a fun story I started writing earlier this year.

 

 

Catchy Hooks and Tons of Synth: “Ruby Red” and The Love Language

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My new review is up over at the music mag Treblezine. Check it out!

Here’s a teaser:

Stuart McLamb, the sole full-time member of The Love Language, recently divulged a secret about himself. “I can definitely overthink stuff,” he said, discussing the just-released Ruby Red. I’ll elaborate: The Love Language recorded the album in a flurry of enthusiasm and anticipation in 2012, and then listened to the finished product en route to SXSW that March. What they heard wasn’t what they wanted to share with their fans. They scrapped it and McLamb and producer B.J. Burton redid the entire thing over the next year with the help of 21 musicians in four states…[Read More]

Check Out My New Serial!

I’ve added a new section to my website, Free Fiction!

This is something I’ve been wantingScreen Shot 2013-08-14 at 5.23.38 PM to try for a while–doing a serial. I think it’ll work perfectly with the chick lit novel I started earlier this year, and then put on stand-by to write A Boat Made of Bone. BMOB is finished (yeah, I totally know I need to update my status bars!) and now I’m editing the first draft. So I thought it would be fun to release the chapters of my chick lit story, which I’ve lovingly titled Olivia Fox: Latter Day Lawyer, in serial form. I’ll be revealing chapters a week at a time. So be sure to mark your calendars, you know, once you get addicted to the story. Because it is addicting.

I’ve included comment forms at the end of each chapter, so please feel free to leave comments. As usual, they are moderated, so it might take a few hours for your comments to show up.

A bit of information about the Olivia Fox story. About two years ago I moved back to Utah after living abroad (is Nashville abroad? Seems like it, but not like abroad as in, you know, Europe, but still…) and even though I grew up here and didn’t move until I was in my mid-twenties, returning to Utah was a bit of culture shock. I love the state and the people, but I’d forgotten how a lot of things are here in the great state of Utah.

So I had to put it in a book. That’s what Olivia Fox is about–someone who left a small Utah community at a young age and moves back. And she’s single, so there’s romance in it. And she’s not Mormon, so there’s that too. Together, it all makes an interesting story. To me, at least. And maybe to a few others.

Check it out now!

 

Lightning Dust Review on Treblezine

Check out my review of the recent Lightning Dust release on the music site Treblezine! Screen Shot 2013-07-29 at 11.31.01 PM

A quick look at Lightning Dust‘s top downloads on Amazon’s MP3 store shows that “Diamonds” is the band’s most downloaded track. One listen and it’s easy to see why — it’s endlessly catchy, its syncopated beat rolling like a flashback to a time when Annie Lennox and Fleetwood Mac commanded the radio. It’s in good company, though —  sparse synth-pop beats, drum-loops, and powerful vocals comprise the whole of Lightning Dust’s third full-length album, Fantasy……read more!

 

Teaser #2: A Boat Made of Bone

A new teaser from A Boat Made of Bone!Screen Shot 2013-08-14 at 4.58.04 PM

You say: “I love it and want to share it!”

You do? Sweet! Thank you!

Here are some easy links, dear heart. Share this awesome teaser on Twitter! Share this awesome teaser on Facebook!

“I’m not just being dramatic, Kate. I was. I was awful. I never let anyone get close to me. I kept everyone at a distance. And I used people for my own ends.” He’s staring at a dresser vanity pushed up against the wall about eight feet from us. There’s a silver hair brush laying on its back upon it and a jewelry box. And the dragonfly ring. I let go of his hand, stand, and retrieve the ring.

“Am I close to you?” I ask, inspecting the ring and putting it on.

He sniffs and rubs his temple. “Yes. You know almost everything there is to know about me.”

This makes me warm inside. “Then it doesn’t matter that at one time, you didn’t let anyone close to you. Because you’ve changed.”

“What about you, Kate. Am I close to you? Do I know everything about you?”

I shift, staring at the dragonfly ring, feeling caught. “Um, no. Not everything.”

“What don’t I know?”

“Don’t forget, Will, that I’m actually alive. And things change constantly.”

“How does that change what we’re talking about now?”

“I don’t know.”

“So are you saying that you’re hiding from me?”

I think of Ty and my mouth goes dry. I don’t want to bring real-life into this, it doesn’t fit here, in the logic of the dream world. It will only upset the balance, I think, and it might scare Will away. I suddenly feel like I’m two-timing him. His eyes are narrow and staring hard at me, so I look away, aware at once of the aura of the room.

“Let’s get out of here, Will. Unless there’s something you want to show me.”

“You’re changing the subject.”

I shrug and wait for him to decide we can leave. With a sigh he stands up and takes my hand. He scans the room, his eyes focusing on the bed, then the mirrors, the dresser, and then, without warning, he lets go of my hand and charges the bed. In one motion, he tears the bedspread off and the sheets and tries to claw through the mattress, which is this very old, striped design. I avert my eyes when I begin to notice all the stains on it. I don’t want to know and I back up until I bump into the wall. Will upends the mattress and it falls against the wall on the opposite side, and then he rushes the dresser and yanks the drawers out, scattering the contents—lingerie, fishnet tights, lace nightgowns and bottles of cheap perfume—and then knocks the dresser over. All the while he yells and grunts, and screams as though exorcising the demons of the past inside him.

Add A Boat Made of Bone to your Goodreads shelf today!

Add to your Goodreads Shelf!